Garrett Sherrill healthy again

SUBMITTED PHOTO Garrett Sherrill, left, warms up with Wisconsin Timber Rattlers teammate Daniel Meadows during a game at Miller Park in Milwaukee.

By Mike London

mlondon@salisburypost.com

KANNAPOLIS — The 6-foot-5 substitute teacher has been a major hit with the kids in the Kannapolis school system, but they shouldn't grow too attached to him.

Most subs have never thrown a baseball 94 mph, but 22-year-old Garrett Sherrill has. His right elbow has recuperated, and he plans to report early to the Milwaukee Brewers' Spring Training camp in Arizona.

Sherrill — a three-sport star at A.L. Brown, a dynamic pitcher at Appalachian State and a 12th-round draft pick in 2008 — last trotted to the mound for an official pro game on May 6 as a member of the Class A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers.

He tossed three scoreless innings in relief in his final outing and struck out three, but he also realized something wasn't right.

"My control was off and my velo (velocity) was way down — 84-85 — and that was it," Sherrill said. "I'm supposed to be 88 to 92 all the time and I like to think I can get 93 or 94 when I really need to. I wasn't feeling any sharp pain and I could have kept pitching through it, but I needed to know what was wrong and went to the coaches and trainers."

An MRI told the story. He was pitching with a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. Usually when you read UCL, you read Tommy John surgery in the next sentence, but Sherrill and the Brewers looked at surgery as a last resort.

"They explained to me that with a partial tear of the UCL it comes down to the percentage it's torn," Sherrill said. "Above a certain percentage, it's surgery. Below a certain percentage, they'll let you try rehab."

Sherrill traveled the rehab route. He knew going in that the success rate was roughly 50 percent.

His treatment started with ultra-sound and massage therapy, then progressed to lifting weights. Sturdy scar tissue built up in the damaged elbow and helped heal the ligament.

The Brewers originally hoped Sherrill could start throwing again by late July and be back on the hill by August, but that optimistic projection didn't happen.

"I really wanted to get back out there before the end of the season, but then I had a few setbacks," Sherrill said. "It turned into a three-month shutdown."

He was able to resume throwing in late September and went at it until the middle of October. In 60-pitch bullpen sessions, with the Brewers monitoring him closely, he threw his fastball with his old zip. He launched his slider and changeup without pain.

It wasn't a miracle, exactly, but close enough.

"It was just a very nice surprise that everything felt as good as it did," Sherrill said. "I honestly felt 100 percent, and if I hadn't felt 100 percent I was going right to the operating table."

When he's right, Sherrill is a serious talent who can operate on hitters. He won 26 games as a Kannapolis American Legion pitcher. He saved 14 at Appalachian. In 821/3 innings in the pros, even with health issues, he's accumulated 100 strikeouts.

He just has to stay healthy, and he's working hard at doing that.

This winter, between classroom assignments, he's worked out with A.L. Brown conditioning guru Todd Hagler as well as former teammates and friends such as Daniel Wagner (White Sox), Zach Ward (Reds) and Ryan Query.

As far as the substitute teaching, he likes the elementary school and kindergarten gigs the best.

"I'm usually the only adult guy there," he said. "That's a lot of fun."

He enjoys subbing at Brown because most of his old teachers are still on duty.

As far as subbing at the middle school, handling eighth-graders is probably at least as challenging as pitching to Ryan Howard in the bottom of the ninth.

"Middle school's definitely the toughest, but I enjoy all of it," Sherrill said with a laugh. "School gets my mind off baseball a little bit, and I'm making a little money instead of spending money at the golf course."

The Brewers sent him a choice of reporting dates, but he picked the earliest — Feb. 26. Last season was basically a washout, so he's got ground to make up.

"Everything feels great, like it's really clicking for me," he said. "I want to jump back in there and get it going as soon as I can."

Even the middle schoolers will miss him.

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NOTES: Sherrill said Query, an All-America catcher at Catawba, has received a number of tryout offers from independent-league teams. ... Sherrill said Ward, a right-hander pitcher who was signed by Cincinnati after he was released by Minnesota last summer, has developed a killer changeup. Ward, who turns 26 this week, finished 2009 with the Double A Carolina Mudcats. Ward was originally drafted in the third round by the Reds out of Gardner-Webb in 2005.